I cast my vote at 270 fwhp.... Stock heads are your bottle neck and for the love of god ditch the b - cam . I loath alphabet cams especially that one. But again that is my opinion. However I do think 165's are the way to go UNLESS you fly cut the pistons or get a different set all together. If you do then I vote 185's because you will have more room to grow with and you can use those heads on any SBF engine combo. Admit it you are going to get a 393 windsor someday... might as well bite the bullit and get the heads that will work well with either combo right now; 165's wont be enought to feed the big cube monster your going to build soon . Either way you go though a single pattern cam will work but the B-cam is still going to be a weak link.
with the B cam and that gt40 manifold you will most likely put 280rwhp fully tuned, just cause B cam isn't optimum and neither is manifold, if you upgraded to a trick flow track heat or a rpm performer 1/2 along with a f303 cam or custom grind you will put out close to 300rwhp, with custom cam def over 300rwhp (and manifold)
i thought the stuff that i had was pretty good... gt40s arent bad when you get the lower ported out... i like the look of them too.. b303 sounds really cool at idle, remember, im not trying to be that fastest stang out there, just something to have fun with
What I hate about these threads, I read them and start wanting to fill out that credit card application, or just stop eating until I can afford a FTI combo.
I think it is clear, AFR heads are the way to go, the 165's seem to have the best overall power on a NA 3" stroke combo. Custom cams don't cost much more than a OTS comp cam, but perform so much better, so why not just spend a little more and get a lot more.
I kind of think I know what y'all mean by the B cam. I have the B cam, on 1.7's, with a 2* advance. I lost so much drivability, I went out an got a daily driver which I wanted to get anyways, but that is the scope of what it did. The cam sounds really mean, and I like the sound, but the bark is better than the bite. It seems I lost tq below 4000rpm, but when 4000rpm come around it definatly hits, or so it feels like it does... I raced a buddy which it was a close race before and the cam made little difference. Yes I gained, but not much. Then he put a Comp Cam CC305 in his LT1 and tied things up, made a much bigger difference on his Camaro, and the cam is suposed to run on 1.6's and he still has old 1.5's, he just got a twin 52mm tb and is ordering 1.6RR's, now I think I'm going to get pulled. I'm starting to want to get another cam.
oh well, us poe folks have to deal with what we have... yeah a custom cam would be nice, but hell i'll take what i can get.... im keeping it and doing little engine upgrades afterwards, ignition , 65mm tbody, little stuff. then to interior , then exterior, i really dont care what the car looks like, i love to drive it so much its fine, (doesnt look bad at all though) plans plans.....
Save up. You'll be glad you did. That's what I did and it's going to be worth it. Been a year since I started planning the motor in my sig. Have the parts now...just have to get it put together. Going to be worth it though. At first I was going to do a 347 w/ GT40 irons, E-cam, and Cobra Intake. I think the stuff I saved up to buy and bought is going to perform a hell of a lot better!